Oliver, Salas Where are the TV White Space pilots? Where are the TV White Space pilots? Are they still a solution for the mobile broadband market?1 Miquel Oliver Francisco Salas Universat Pompeu Fabra Universitat Pompeu Fabra [email protected] [email protected] BIOGRAPHIES Miquel Oliver is Associate Professor and Director of the ICT Department at the UPF. He is leading the multidisciplinary Networking and Strategies Research Group (NeTS) since its foundation. His research is on wireless communications, with a multidisciplinary view including regulation, telecom policies and economic impact. Francisco Salas is Master student at the Master in Wireless Communications, a joint program between the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. ABSTRACT TV White Spaces is a cost-effective solution to provide broadband Internet in rural and remote areas. Several TVWS pilots and testbeds are now being deployed to explore the limitations of such technology. Some Latin American countries already started benchmarking and analysing TVWS and the spectrum occupancy to support future digital services. The results evidence that even when the region has a significant amount of spectrum with the all the needed characteristics, the majority of the countries do not use it, mostly as a consequence of the lack of frequency regulations and coordinations within the Latin American region. Keywords Spectrum, TV White Spaces, Digital Dividend, Latam. INTRODUCTION In the last years the consumption of mobile data services has greatly increased, as more users consume everyday trough their smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other devices to browse the web. Plus the significant increase of video represents a challenge, as increased usage strains the capacity of the airwaves. Many experts agree that, despite the continuous investment in networks and advances in wireless efficiency, the increment demand for mobile broadband service is likely to surpass the available spectrum capacity in the short term. This has led to the mobile operators to compete in order to gain access to a share of the available spectrum commonly referred as “TV White Spaces” (TWS), which can be defined as the VHF (Very High Frequency)/UHF (Ultra High Frequency) frequencies left in idle by the Television broadcasting. [1] These bands have excellent characteristics as propagation and low level of noise, which allows large macro-cell sizes and low density of subscribers. These idle frequencies also offer an exceptional opportunity to connect sparse communities found on the extensive rural areas, especially because there is a lack of plans to extend fiber to these communities and they provide a really cost- effective solution compared to fiber. [2] The new opportunities for efficient use of the spectrum in community networks, particularly taking advantage of the cognitive radio technology, are significantly enhanced with the availability of channels from white spaces and gains from the digital dividend. [3] The carriers are going to be able to reach a large market; thanks to the economies of 1 This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Gov- ernment under projects TEC2016-79510-P (Proyectos Excelencia 2016). CPRLATAM Conference, Cartagena, Colombia, June 22-23rd, 2017 in coordination with CLT2017, June 20-23rd, 2017 319 Olivier, Salas Where are the TV White Space pilots? scale could even prevent the high prices in the upcoming equipments. [4] Moreover, not only telecommunications companies can beneficiate from a TV White Space auction. Cable companies or small Internet providers can purchase unlicensed broadband spectrum and use it to enlarge their market share promoting both, Internet service in remote and rural areas to reduce the digital breach, and an increase of the competition lowering prices for the final users. There is a strong reason that focuses the spectrum debate on the TV spectrum. The relatively long wavelengths of the TV bands are able to cover larger areas and penetrate buildings, vegetation and terrains with good signal quality. These characteristics make this technology ideal for long-range backhaul scenarios where other technologies at higher frequencies such as 3G and 4G have a higher cost per user. More precisely, the VHF/UHF TV spectrum enables Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) wireless communication that can reach up to 30 km with current technology. [5] Several reports and analysis have studied the use of TV white spaces for other applications [6-7], which will be discussed in further detail in the following chapters. Starting in 2011 [8], several pilots and experiences around the globe were launched. Most of them were endorsed by glogal Internet organizations such as Microsoft or Google from slightly different angles and perspectives. Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina as well as Ghana, Malawi [9], Kenya and many other countries participated in proofs of concept, analysis, sensing trials, pilots or initial developments to benchmark TVWS as a cost-effective mobile broadband solution for several scenarios (rural and urban). In this paper we browse all the information available from TVWS experiences in Latin American countries and Jamaica, to provide an updated picture with all the information publicly available to analyze the barriers and benefits derived from each experience. We have reported some TVWS facts from seven countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Uruguay and Venezuela) that we summarize below. Before, we briefly describe the TVWS technology to understand the basics assumptions even for readers with non-technological background. Finally we conclude the paper by answering the research questions stated. In an upcoming section, the main issue will be to query for those TVWS pilots and infer which is the current status of them, with special focus in the LATAM region. The first TVWS pilots will provide suitable experience to define the road map and future applications in the development and uptake of the mobile broadband market. [10] TV WHITE SPACES: THE BASICS Technology TV White Spaces (TVWS) access can be easily deployed and takes advantage of otherwise unused spectrum. Because enabling spectrum access to white space devices does not require relocating incumbents and because the rules protect those incumbents, a license–exempt framework for access to TV white spaces can be adopted and put into use without disruption to incumbent operations. [11] Two different techniques have been developed to check spectrum availability. These techniques use the information of the network previously delivered by the operators. The first model is proposed by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) [12], which regulates interstate and international communications in the United States, while the other is proposed by the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT). [13] Both techniques show similar characteristics, summarized in a geo-referenced database with information of the location of the frequencies occupied; recommendations on some spectrum detection techniques in secondary use devices to confirm channel availability before use; and a classification of the secondary devices according to their mobility, sensibility and use. However, FCC either CEPT do not take into account the current coverage of the TV channels, so they do not allow the identification of TVWS available in areas where there are coverage problems due to geographic and propagation conditions. By adding a computer-simulated coverage maps allows the identification of potentially allocated but unused channels available, increasing the number of detected white spaces compared to the detection techniques used in traditional models. [14] Digital Divend and analog TV switch-off to allow more free spectrum The process of digitalization (and compression) of the TV signal allows a multiplication of the capacity of every single analog channel. The release of electromagnetic spectrum in the traditional TV bands of VHF and UHF for other digital services is known as digital dividend. A better frequency shaping of the digitalized TV signals allows the use of adjacent (or neighboring) channels releasing even more capacity for other services. 320 CPRLATAM Conference, Cartagena, Colombia, June 22-23rd, 2017 in coordination with CLT2017, June 20-23rd, 2017 Oliver, Salas Where are the TV White Space pilots? In most countries the digital dividend usually locates at frequency bands VHF (174-230 MHz) and UHF (470- 862 MHz). The coexistence of other wireless services such as satellite, emergency or cable services in these bands makes the digital dividend very country-dependent in shape, size and location. Most of the countries, LATAM countries included, are planning the allocation of their digital dividens in the next years, allowing more less- interfered white spaces. Most of the Latin American countries planned the switch-off of the analog TV as the last milestone of the digital dividend process between 2019 and 2025, depending on the area and the deployment of infrastructures to support the distribution of the digital TV along the country [15]. In summary, the digital dividend allows a more compacted spectrum in UHF and VHF TV bands inreasing the feasibility of TVWS technologies as a solution to provide broadband in rural and remote areas to avoid digital inclusion. Some Latin American countries targeted in this paper plan to finish the digital dividend in 2019 (Argentina and Colombia [16]), Brazil first decided in 2016 but finally